Mutual funds continued to buy into oil and gas, banking and finance, telecom, and media stocks in April. They also turned bullish on the FMCG sector. Meanwhile, auto and IT stocks yet again weighed heavy on their sell list.

Weightage to metal, and pharma sectors too was pared, while stocks were re-aligned in the chemical, cement & construction, and utility space.

A study of the top ten mutual funds' equity portfolios as on April 30, which are Reliance, ICICI Prudential, UTI, HDFC, Templeton, Birla SunLife, SBI, Standard Chartered, Kotak, and Tata Mutual Fund reveals that funds bought huge chunks of pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories, while continued to dilute their exposure to auto major Ashok Leyland, and FMCG major ITC.

In terms of value BHEL, Ranbaxy Labs, and Sterlite Industries were the top purchases by funds, while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, and Reliance Industries topped the sell list. Meanwhile, three of the four equity IPOs that listed in April found place in the mutual fund portfolios with Orbit Corporation being the favourite.

Equity IPOs hot with Mutual Funds:

Equity IPOs bought	No.of Shares
Orbit Corporation	1,611,855
ICRA	97,369
Advanta India	72,910

Among the four IPOs that listed in April, Orbit Corporation was the top pick with two of the top 10 MFs purchasing over 16 lakh (1.6 million) shares of the company. ICICI Pru MF was the top buyer with almost 12.7 lakh (1.27 million) shares bought followed by SBI MF with over 340,000 shares.

Birla, Tata and UTI MF together picked over 97,000 shares of ICRA IPO with Birla MF being the top buyer with 90,000 shares bought. Tata MF bought 72,910 shares of chemical stock Advanta India. Meanwhile, Gremach Infrastructure Equipments IPO failed to attract funds.

Stocks and Sectors that attracted Funds:

Top shares traded by MFs             (based on volume)
Top 5 shares bought	No.of Shares
Ranbaxy Labs	4,009,504
Shri Ramrupai Balaji	3,968,816
HT Media	3,829,502
Tata Teleservices (M)	3,681,671
Crompton Greaves	3,652,208
Top 5 shares sold	No.of Shares
Ashok Leyland	12,295,554
ITC	10,827,730
SAIL	5,541,831
Tata Motors	4,968,221
Zee News	4,672,992

Ranbaxy Laboratories - the top bought stock was purchased by six out of the top ten funds. Reliance MF was the top buyer of the stock with over 21 lakh (2.1 million) shares bought. ICICI Pru, HDFC, SBI, UTI, and Tata MF also added to its investments in the stock, while Stanchart, and Templeton MF pared exposure to it.

Among other pharma stocks, Dabur Pharma was bought, while FDC, Alembic, Dr Reddy's Labs, and Kopran were among the top sells.

Power equipment manufacturer BHEL was the top buy in terms of value. It was bought by five MFs. HDFC MF was the top buyer with almost 4.5 lakh shares bought.

Among other utility stocks, Tata Power, and CESC were bought, while NTPC, and Reliance Energy were among the top sells.

The top sold stock in terms of volume - Ashok Leyland was sold by six out of the top ten funds. Templeton MF was the top seller of the stock with over 52.8 lakh (5.28 million) shares sold. HDFC, Tata, Stanchart, UTI, and Reliance MF also slashed their exposure to the stock, while SBI, and Birla MF bought it.

Top shares traded by MFs            (based on value)
Top 5 shares bought	Value (Rs in cr)
BHEL	188.61
Ranbaxy Labs	148.89
Sterlite Industries (I)	142.02
HCL Technologies	118.89
HDFC Bank	118.22
Top 5 shares sold	Value (Rs in cr)
Tata Motors	372.84
Tata Steel	228.05
Reliance Industries	179.30
ITC	173.24
Dr Reddys Labs	152.50

Tata Motors, yet another auto major was the top value sell. It was sold by eight MFs. Reliance MF was the top buyer with over 18 lakh (1.8 million) shares sold.

Among other auto stocks, TVS Motor, Rane Madras, and Maruti were sold, while Eicher Motors, and Exide Industries were among the top buys.

Among other sectors that attracted funds, oil and gas stocks HPCL, BPCL, and Cairn India figured among the top 50 buys, while Hindustan Oil Exploration, and Reliance Industries were sold.

Banking and finance stocks IFCI, Centurion Bank, BoB, Union Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India, and Dena Bank were bought, while Power Finance Corporation, Andhra Bank, IDFC, Yes Bank, and Vijaya Bank were sold.

Telecom stocks Tata Teleservices, GTL, and VSNL were bought, while MTNL was sold. Buying was also seen in media stocks Dish TV, HT Media, Zee Entertainment, and UTV Software, while Zee News, Deccan Chronicle, Wire and Wireless were sold. In the FMCG pack, HLL, Dabur, and Marico were purchased, but ITC was sold extensively.

Funds pared exposure to metal stocks Sail, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Adhunik Metaliks, but bought Shri Ramrupai, Sterlite Industries, and Jindal Stainless. Heavy selling was seen in IT stocks Satyam, Firstsource Solutions, Wipro, and TCS, while HCL Technologies, Spanco Telesystems, and Infotech Enterprises were bought.

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